Publications
Publications
- Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)
Repairing the Damage: The Effect of Price Knowledge and Gender on Auto-Repair Price Quotes
By: Meghan Busse, Ayelet Israeli and Florian Zettelmeyer
Abstract
In this paper we investigate whether sellers treat consumers differently on the basis of how well informed consumers appear to be. We implement a large-scale field experiment in which callers request price quotes from automotive repair shops. We show that sellers alter their initial price quotes depending on whether consumers appear to be correctly informed, uninformed, or misinformed about market prices. We find that repair shops quote higher prices to callers who cite a higher benchmark price. We find that women are quoted higher prices than men when callers signal that they are uninformed about market prices. However, gender differences disappear when callers mention a benchmark price for the repair. Finally, we find that repair shops are more likely to offer a price concession if asked to do so by a woman than a man.
Keywords
Pricing; Price Discrimination; Automobiles; Field Experiment; Information; Fairness; Price; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Internet; Gender; Service Industry; Auto Industry
Citation
Busse, Meghan, Ayelet Israeli, and Florian Zettelmeyer. "Repairing the Damage: The Effect of Price Knowledge and Gender on Auto-Repair Price Quotes." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 54, no. 1 (February 2017): 75–95.